Typography and Composition
Typography and Composition tests whether you can specify type correctly and arrange it so that it reads in the intended order.
What the exam tests
Expect type anatomy, measurement, spacing, alignment and proof-correction marks.
Core rules
- Type is measured in points: 72 points = 1 inch; 12 points = 1 pica; 6 picas = 1 inch.
- A type size such as 10/12 means 10-point type on 12-point leading. Leading is baseline-to-baseline distance, not the gap between lines.
- Anatomy: baseline, x-height, cap height, ascender, descender, serif, counter, bowl, stem, terminal. X-height strongly affects apparent size.
- Kerning adjusts space between a specific pair; tracking adjusts spacing across a range; leading controls vertical rhythm.
- Alignment: flush left/ragged right is easiest to read; justified text needs hyphenation and word-spacing control; centred suits short lines; flush right is for captions or sidebars.
- Hierarchy comes from size, weight, case, colour and space, not from many typefaces. Limit a job to two or three families.
- Proofreading marks: delete, insert, transpose, stet, caps/lower case.
Worked example
A 3-inch deep column is set 10/12. How many lines fit? 3 inches × 72 = 216 points; 216 ÷ 12 = 18 lines. If the same column used 10/13, it would hold 216 ÷ 13 = 16 full lines with 8 points left over. Reasoning: convert depth to points, then divide by the leading, not by the type size.
Traps
Using 72 points per pica, or 12 points per inch, reverses the scale. Calling leading “space between lines” leads to off-by-one errors. Justified text without hyphenation produces rivers and loose lines. Adding tracking to lowercase text at small sizes harms readability.